External orthopedic fixation devices are commonly used in the treatment of limb injuries and deformations including skeletal fractures, soft tissue injuries, delayed union of skeletal bones resulting from slow healing, non-union of skeletal bones involving unhealed bones, mal-union of bones resulting from the improper healing of broken or fractured bones, congenital deformities resulting from bones developing in a mal-position, and bone widening or twisting. Medical procedures involving external orthopedic fixation devices include limb lengthening, deformity correction, and the treatment of fractures, mal-unions, non-unions, and bone defects. Typically, external fixator systems may be placed on a subject's (e.g., a human or another vertebrate animal) affected limb by a surgeon to set the impacted bones or bone fragments in a desired position. The fixator systems may be adjusted throughout the treatment process in order to set and maintain the bones in a desired position.
External fixator systems often comprise fixation rings, threaded rods or struts, and wires or pins. The subject's affected limb may be received within the fixation rings and the threaded rods or struts may be used to control the distance and angles of the fixation rings relative to each other. The wires or pins may extend across the fixation rings through the subject's affected limb (e.g., through the bone and/or soft tissue), and the wires or pins may be connected to the fixation rings with nuts and bolts. However, before the wire may be fixed across the fixation rings by the nuts and bolts, the wire must be tensioned to an optimal tension, which is a difficult, complicated, and overly wieldy procedure.
Known tensioning methods require multiple steps, and often more than one person, to properly tension wires across the fixation rings. First, a first end of the wire is fixed with a nut and a bolt to a first connection point on the fixation ring. One or more wrenches must be used to tighten the nut and the bolt at the first connection point before the wire may be tensioned. Next, the wire is stretched across the fixation ring and must be tensioned while a second end of the wire is fixed with a nut and a bolt to a second connection point on the fixation ring. In addition to the one or more wrenches that must be used to tighten the nut and the bolt at the first connection point, a tensioner must be used to tension the wire. As such, three instruments—a first wrench to tighten the nut, a second wrench to provide counter-torque on the bolt, and at least one tensioner to tension the wire—must be used at the same time, therefore requiring more than one person to tension the wire across the fixation ring.
In addition, known wire tensioning methods tension the wire against the fixation ring. If the wires are not oriented orthogonally to the outer surface of the fixation ring, the tensioner may slip under heavy loads, preventing the wires from being properly tensioned and possibly injuring the surgeon, the patient, or both.
Therefore, it is desirable to have an improved wire tensioner tip that is operable to engage with a wire fixation bolt and that is operable to be manipulated by one person to tension and secure a wire across an external fixation frame.